Genre: Fairytale retelling // Sci-fi
Category: YA
Series: The Lunar Chronicles #2
Goodreads rating: 4.31
My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Cinder, the cyborg mechanic, returns in the second thrilling installment of the bestselling Lunar Chronicles. She’s trying to break out of prison–even though if she succeeds, she’ll be the Commonwealth’s most wanted fugitive.
Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit’s grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn’t know about her grandmother or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother’s whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana, who will do anything for the handsome Prince Kai to become her husband, her king, her prisoner .
I loved Scarlet so much more than Cinder. I’m officially in love with the series now. At times Cinder was a bit predictable, because I’m so familiar with the fairytale. Scarlet wasn’t predictable at all, which made it way more enjoyable. The pace felt faster too, which led me to reading it faster than Cinder.
Can we get an applause for a book with different POVs which are all interesting? I mean, that doesn’t happen often. I didn’t mind switching between POVs, not even once. Nor did I ever think: ah no, not them again! Seriously, I applaud Marissa Meyer.
There are three new major characters in Scarlet: Scarlet herself, Wolf and Thorne. Scarlet is a great heroine, but Thorne kind of stole her thunder. He just reminded me of my favourite type of anime character. Full of himself, funny and incredibly lovable.
The friendship that develops between Thorne and Cinder just gave me life. Did I miss her interaction with Kai? Yes, but honestly I love friendship more than romantic ships. I think this is also because friendship is quite underrated! I just want more bromance in my books.
Back to Scarlet and Wolf though. I loved Scarlet: she was witty, sarcastic, brave and loved her grandmother more than anything. Wolf too was an interesting character, but I won’t go into any details as I don’t want to spoil anything. Did the romance go a bit too fast? Yes, but Scarlet herself acknowledged that, so I couldn’t be too annoyed. In the end they’re a really cute couple (also Wolf is one of the greatest dorks who is amazed by tomatoes).
I personally found the plot more interesting than Cinder‘s (not saying that I didn’t find Cinder‘s plot interesting! Not at all), but honestly, I can’t say too much about it or I’m afraid I’ll spoil it. Just know that it’s true what they say about this series: it gets better with every book. Now excuse me while I go cry about the fact that they didn’t have Cress at my bookstore when I bought Scarlet and I’ll have to wait until I have time to visit the bookstore again (which wil be after my exams).
Note from Michelle from 2020: once I reread Cinder I actually loved it just as much as Scarlet!
